Brisket

[Farley]

Got challenged to a "Brisket Trow Down" Friday night at deer camp. Any advise from those of you that have brisket down? Or have you done a brisket and thought "next time I might do this"? Feel free to share your thoughts. I'm going for a nice crust on the outside, a nice smoke ring when sliced, and of course tender. I feel if I can hit those three things, I got a winner (at least a winner over the challenger).

One thing I'm tossing around is marinating in a little lemon juice\burbon mix, light on the burbon so as just to get a hint of it in the final product, I think that would put it over the top with these particular judges, but I'm worried the alcohol might dry out the meat?

[reinhard1]

Farley while your waiting for some good information, go to page 4 of the cooking forum and near the bottom is the beef brisket thread with Third Eye and others with information and pictures. good luck.

[Farley]

Been there, twice actually, I get to about where Thirdeye posts his pics and my mouth starts watering I gotta go get a snack.

[McGurk]

I've had good luck with an overnight brine before the LONG and SLOW smoke. I have heard of people starting to do them hot and fast with good results, but I haven't tried it. I plan on 12-14 hours on the smoker at around 225 deg, with the last 5 hours or so in a tinfoil cocoon, and another hour or 2 in a cooler packed with towels or crumpled up newspapers to rest. If you are doing this for deer camp, get up around 4 and get it going soyou can have time to get to the stand. Then, around 6 you can pull it and put it into a cooler (if you can stand to wait!).

[Farley]

Gotta be done by 8:00 friday night. Planning on starting at 4a.m. 8 lb. Brisket, should take 12-16 hours. That gets me done at around 4-8 p.m. I figure anytime after 4:00 I can pull it whenever it gets to 195, it can rest in a cooler till 8 and should be fine. The other thing I'm thinking about is not to foil, I know that makes it juicy and tender but people do it all the time without foiling, that is actually the traditional way, but I'm thinking I'll get a better bark if I dont foil at 160 or whatever temp it is. So I guess I'm asking if anyone as ever done one and not foiled it and it turned out good? Couple other opinions I'd like to hear:

1. Mild wood or strong wood? I'm using a bradley electric with the pucks that change every 20 minutes so I can set it up to smoke heavy with mesquite or hickory at first then switch to oak or pecan for a milder smoke after the first hour or so (thats how I'm thinking I can get that nice smoke ring).

2. score the fat? Dont score the fat? Trim to 1/4"? Leave it all on?

[McGurk]

An 8 lber shouldn't need 16 hours, as I did one around 13 lbs in 13 hours. I did cut off a lot of the fat but left a layer over the meat. I hate chewing on fat no matter how soft it is, so I trim. Scoring isn't a bad idea, either. You are right about the foil reducing the bark, and people do a full cook without foil. You will want to look into a mop sauce and have enough around to apply every so often on the last half of the cook. After you get it started don't even look at it until about 6 hours have gone by.

I would use a mild wood from the start so you aren't burping up too much smoke all weekend. If you saw my last writeup in the "What's cooking this weekend" thread you will see my recipes at the end, and make sure to cut the salt in the rub if you use it!

[Farley]

cool, thanks McGurk, you got me thinking about a burbon enhanced mop sauce instead of marinating.

[thirdeye]

Hey Farley, three questions come to mind. You got any money riding on this contest, what are you cooking on, and can you do a practice cook?

Edit: I just noticed you have a Bradley. My favorite brisket woods are pecan, oak and pecan. I mentioned pecan twice because I really like it. Next would be pecan. Heheheee.

Seriously, you can go with a low pit temp, a higher pit temp, they can be marinated, or can be injected when raw or injected later, and they can be cooked without foil, or finished in a foil pouch. You can go with a complex rub or a basic salt/pepper/cayenne rub. You can also doctor them with a 15 minute sprinkle of Tenderquick (on the meat side, then rinsed off, then returned to the fridge for 1 hour, then seasoned and cooked as usual) to make the smoke ring pop out.

Without blowing too much smoke here.... there are many ways and no one way works for everyone. However, if you can keep it moist, and cook it tender you will have a good chance of winning this contest. And a little too tender is better than a little chewy.

A late injection combined with a foil finish will do both of these. The bad side is that the bark will suffer because while it's in the foil it's really braising which will soften the bark. At about 160° to 170° internal I will usually shoot a brisket with a warmed up beefy broth, put in a triple layer of foil (fat side up) and add a couple of ounces of the same injection juice before sealing the pouch. Then I cook it until it feels tender when I stick an ice pick into it. Usually this happens around 200°, but might not happen until it's 205°. But I trust the feel over the temperature. Then I remove the pouch and open it for 10 minutes to vent the heat and slow down the cooking. Then seal it back up and put it in a cooler with newspaper packed around for insulation. It rests here for as long as I can get away with. 3 or 4 hours is fine. It will still be plenty hot. Don't slice until you are ready to serve it, and serve it with some of the foil juice painted on.

[Farley]

No money on it yet, but you know how it goes at deer camp, "King of the Brisket" is held at the same esteem as biggest deer.

Printed this whole thread out as my guide. I guess the smoke ring and tenderness\juicy is the most important, I'd hate to dry it out so I will foil, and gonna try out some injections on maybe a cheap pc. of meat this week. Like I said before if I can get that right hint of burbon in there, it'll put it over the top. Thanks for the invaluable info guys, the tenderquik thing is info you just cant google, ya know?

[McGurk]

Printed this whole thread out as my guide...

If this is true, take thirdeye's advice well over mine. Smoke ring's can be cheated in with his tenderquick rub and rinse (it's more of a chemical reaction than actual "smoke"), and juiciness will be more apt to come from a foil wrap. Bark will come from more exposure, but at a risk of drying out. You will still get a good bark from a generous rub and many hours on the smoker without foil, and I just foil with a good dose of apple juice/vinegar starting around 170 up until 200 deg int temp or so. You will have a long time for that bark to burn up black before you foil!

[reinhard1]

That's what i like about our cooking threads. almost instant information from guys like Third Eye and McGurk. this is one subject i am learning from as well. the "deer camp meal" is all a part of that great experience of deer camp. good luck.

[thirdeye]

No money on it yet, but you know how it goes at deer camp, "King of the Brisket" is held at the same esteem as biggest deer.

Printed this whole thread out as my guide. I guess the smoke ring and tenderness\juicy is the most important, I'd hate to dry it out so I will foil, and gonna try out some injections on maybe a cheap pc. of meat this week. Like I said before if I can get that right hint of burbon in there, it'll put it over the top. Thanks for the invaluable info guys, the tenderquik thing is info you just cant google, ya know?

"My Guide" is just that, a guide..... something to consider here because we're talking about bragging rights. What's important is to go with a plan that you feel will work best, and guess what.... you might change gears more than once during this cook, which is fine. Brisket is a tough cook. My opinion is not gospel by any means, I just pointed out a few things that you might not do for a Saturday afternoon brisket.

[thirdeye]

[Farley]

What is Tenderquick? Some kind of sodium nitrite mix? I think I read some people use it for cure as well? I've never used it but heard about it enough to want to try it.

Oh and got home last night and low and behold there was a chuck roast sitting on the table thawing. So I'm going to test my brine\injection on the chuck that will be put in a crockpot all day Wed. i should be able to expect pretty close to the same results in flavor (from the brine\injection) with the brisket I would think.

[reinhard1]

i use tenderquick in all the jerky i make. Morton Tender Quick mix is a proven product that produces consistent results. the main preserving agents are salt, sugar, both sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite[ curing agents that also contribute to development of color and flavor], and propylene glycol to keep the mixture uniform. that pot roast is going to be great i think. good luck.

[Farley]

How much do you use per lb of jerky?

[reinhard1]

one level tablespoon per pound of meat. if you have a reciepe that has salt in the ingrediants, leave the salt out. i also let my jerky mix sit overnight so the cure sets in and the spices are incorporated. Hi Mountain and Nesco jerky mixes come with the cure in a seperate pac. good luck.

[Farley]

Cool, I'll give it a try on the next batch of goose jerky.

[Farley]

Was in Cub last night and couldnt find tenderquick, where do you get it? Gonna stop at the butcher shop tonite to see if they carry it, I'd imagine the pink cure (Instacure?) you can get from the bucher would have the same effect? I have some of that at home. I'm guessing to use a very small amount since its prettymuch Sodium Nitrite on a salt carrier.

[reinhard1]

the only place to get the pink stuff or praque powder is usualy from a butcher supply company or on line. the correct ratio for that is 1 teaspoon per 5 pounds of meat. or one ounce for 25 pounds of meat. make sure that you dissolve it in water and then put it in the mixture. usualy 1/4 cup of water per pound of meat. and mix it thouroughly and let the meat mix sit overnight to blend everything in. i got my tenderquick at a county market store here in Andover and they had some in the Cub here also. maby call around your area. good luck.

[thirdeye]

Was in Cub last night and couldnt find tenderquick, where do you get it? Gonna stop at the butcher shop tonite to see if they carry it, I'd imagine the pink cure (Instacure?) you can get from the bucher would have the same effect? I have some of that at home. I'm guessing to use a very small amount since its prettymuch Sodium Nitrite on a salt carrier.

In the grocery stores Tenderquick is usually by the canning jars, but some places have it with the other salts. I think my WalMart even carries it. It's in a mostly blue bag. Pink salt has a higher percentage of nitratres (around 6%) than TQ (around 1%).

[Farley]

i did a product search on Mortons HSOforum and found you can get it at most Lunds\Byerly's and a select few Cub foods. The chuck roast turned out pretty good, I did a whiskey butter injection the night before cooking, real, real faint hint of whiskey in the final product, in fact if you didnt know it was in there you probably wouldnt have figured it out. most of it cooked out, so I'm going to inject the brisket with a burbon brine tonite and rub, let sit overnight and inject with burbon butter when I foil, and use a little less burbon in the butter (1/8 cup) so as not to overpower. Thanks again for all the help boys.

[dirtking]

Well Farley??? di d you win your cook off? How did it turn out? Did you get yer deer yet?

[Farley]

Nope, didnt win the Brisket throwdown, both briskets were pretty good, but both had room for improvement. His had a little bit better flavor from his rub and mop sauce and mine didnt get enough flavor from the burbon butter injection it seemed. Mine had the better smoke ring (thanks for the tip Thirdeye) and some said mine was more tender but I knew it was missing something and after I tasted his I knew it was the rub.

And no I saw one smaller buck Sat eve. and one doe Sun eve, went out all day Mon. and half day last eve. and saw absolutley nothing. Pretty slow in the Stockholm area. How about you? I'm the only one out of 6 people in my group who has even seen a deer. How about you?

[thirdeye]

Sounds like everyone got to sample some good brisket, and at least you can say you got Reserve Champion.

Finding out the flavor you like is hard on a brisket because you are trying to balance out the beefiness flavor with your seasonings. Some cooks use only salt and pepper, others use a really complex rub, and still others layer a couple of different rubs during the cooking process.

It's always better to have more than one to taste so you can figure out what to do next time.